


Enough Is Enough

by katling



Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2019 [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Shifters, Bucky is sensible though, Civil War Team Iron Man, Gen, Moderated due to trolls, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Sort Of, everything up to the airport happens the same, not team Cap friendly, that's when things change
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-03 17:47:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17882369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katling/pseuds/katling
Summary: In the wake of the disaster in Bucharest, Tony decides enough is enough. If Steve is going to push, Tony will push back and he has a bit more in his arsenal than anyone expected.Written for the Tony Stark Bingo 2019 - Square S3: Anthropomorfic





	Enough Is Enough

“And what if he decides to shift?”

Silence fell in the room at Everett Ross’ question and Tony sighed. They’d tracked Rogers and the others to Leipzig/Halle airport where they seemed to be waiting for something or someone. The decision had been made to try and take them at the airport, since they could more easily evacuate it and there was plenty of open space to draw them into and hopefully avoid any major property damage. After the disaster in Bucharest, everyone was keen to avoid a repeat.

But Ross had brought up the elephant in the room. Rogers had always been a shifter but before the serum, he’d apparently been a small, emaciated, rather mangy-looking cat according to the few photos that still existed from that time. The serum had changed that along with the rest of him and afterwards he’d become a rather impressive winged lion. He also kept the basic elements of the serum’s effects in that form, being stronger and faster than an ordinary lion and with a healing factor that was, if anything, more impressive than when he was in his human form. No other Avenger could match him as most were either normal humans or had lesser shifted forms.

Or so everyone thought.

Tony sighed and scrubbed his face with one hand. “I can handle that.”

“Tones,” Rhodey said in a low voice. “You don’t have to…”

Tony gave him a pained smile. “I know but we can’t have a repeat of Bucharest. I won’t allow it.”

“You’re a shifter?” Ross asked curiously. “There’s no record of it.”

“It’s not mandatory in the US for civilians,” Rhodey growled, a hint of his bear flickering over his face.

Ross gave Rhodey a wary look. “Of course. May we ask what your shifted form is?”

“You may ask,” Tony said shortly as he got to his feet. “Look, we don’t have time for the dog and pony show right now. The Accords allow for emergency decisions to be made by a quorum. We have that here right now. I want a decision.”

The members of the Accords panel in the room and on video conference all exchanged glances then nodded then Ross turned and addressed Tony and Rhodey formally. “Dr Stark, Colonel Rhodes, you have the approval of the Council to bring in Steve Rogers, James Barnes, Sam Wilson and anyone else in their company by any means necessary. You may recruit whoever you feel is needed.”

Tony gave them a curt nod in return. “Thank you.”

He and Rhodey walked out of the room and down to where they’d left their armour. As they reached the two suits that were standing sentry, Rhodey slowed and placed a hand on Tony’s shoulder.

“Tony…”

“I know,” Tony said. “Look, it was bound to come out eventually. It’s a miracle we’ve managed to keep it quiet for as long as we have, especially after Afghanistan. I’m pretty sure SHIELD had their suspicions, both before and after. I think they found where I’d been held and had a look around. I wasn’t able to destroy all the evidence.”

Rhodey’s expression darkened momentarily. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to having to use it.”

Tony nodded and they both stepped up to their respective armour and let it surround them. Tony immediately got on the comms to the others. “Right, kids. We’ve got official permission to bring them in so let’s get to it. The sooner we can put an end to this, the sooner we can get a handle on the PR battle and stop any punitive measures being put in the Accords. Natasha, can you handle the Winter Soldier?”

“I’ve got him,” came the calm, cool response.

“King Kitty, can you take Rogers? He’s a shifter so you’ll have the best chance against him.”

There was a disgruntled silence before T’Challa responded. “I want Barnes.”

“And I want a pony and my own castle,” Tony shot back. “But we don’t all get what we want. They’re to be brought in _alive_ , Your Majesty. The Winter Soldier has always been a tool, a weapon, not the person running the show. If HYDRA isn’t aiming him at someone this time, we need to know who is because they’re a threat to the entire damn world. We can’t question him if he’s dead.”

There was another long silence and when T’Challa spoke, he sounded more conciliatory. “I concede to your point, Dr Stark. We will bring them in alive.”

“Spider-kid…”

“Spider- _Man_ ,” came the immediate, slightly injured reply.

Tony grinned. “Spider-Man then. I want you to stick to the edges and web them up. Do not engage with them. Got it?”

There was a disgruntled sigh. “Yes, Mr Stark sir.”

Tony heard the ping of T’Challa going over to a private channel and mentally braced himself.

“I gather you would like us to keep an eye on the young man?” came the faintly amused voice of the Wakandan king.

Tony blinked, slightly nonplussed. “Uh, yeah… yes, please. He’s strong and fast and… incredible really but he’s… young.”

“I’d gathered,” T’Challa said, still sounding amused. “He sounds much like the Shifter cubs in Wakanda. All bravado and eagerness and very little common sense.”

“Good description,” Tony said, relaxing now that T’Challa didn’t seem annoyed that he’d brought someone so young along. But then, Tony wasn’t planning on a fight and even if it did devolve into a fight, it was _Steve_. He was being an idiot right now but he wasn’t going to go dark side or anything like that.

He began to have doubts about that once the fight began. It didn’t take long to realise that Rogers’ people weren’t holding back. Mostly he realised that when Maximoff piled a dozen cars on top of him. He ignored the alerts and alarms flashing across the HUD and shoved down the instinct to shift and deal with the witch once and for all. Instead, he blasted them away and got back into the fight.

It was only when he saw the beam from the stone in Vision’s forehead miss Wilson and strike Rhodey’s arc reactor and watched him start to fall that he threw away any measure of caution.

“Rhodey!” he screamed as he shifted without thought.

The armour fell away as he shifted and FRIDAY gathered the pieces together and reformed them. Tony didn’t care about that as he stretched his wings and dived at Rhodey. The enormous dragon reached him just ten feet above the ground and caught him in his claws as gently as he could. He dropped to the ground and placed the War Machine armour down.

“Rhodey,” he growled, smoke and a little bit of flame trickling out of his muzzle.

For a moment, Rhodey didn’t move then the face plate opened. Rhodey looked grey and sweaty but he quickly gathered himself. “Get them, Tones. Enough is fucking enough.”

Tony nodded and with a low growl, he leapt into the air. He could see T’Challa and Parker staring at him with open awe and surprise. Natasha looked frightened and he quickly ignored that to focus on Rogers and his lot.

Wilson was already on the ground and approaching Rhodey, his expression one of worry and shock, as though he hadn’t thought this could get so dangerous. Rhodey saw Wilson approach as he clambered out of his armour but waved Tony on. Vision had already dealt with Maximoff and Barton was down and unconscious from the look of it. There was no sign of the giant guy. That only left the other two.

The red and gold dragon swooped up to get a better look and caught sight of Rogers and Barnes running towards the quinjet. He growled and put on some speed and arrived just as they got the jet in the air. Tony didn’t bother with any niceties and wheeled around to land on the top of the jet. He dug his claws into the fuselage, a deafening screeching sound echoing around the airport as he peeled back the metal until he reached some of the wiring he was looking for. He quickly yanked it out then spread his wings to control the way the jet dropped. He couldn’t stop it but he could control it and reduce it to a heavy landing rather than an outright crash.

Once the jet was down, he reached around and dug his claws into the hatch, ripping it out with a tortured screech of metal. As he did, Rhodey ran up with T’Challa, who was yowling angrily under his breath, something that continued even as he shifted back from his panther form. There was no sign of Natasha but Tony didn’t care about that right now. He made an angry noise and scraped his claws against the hull of the jet. A moment later, Barnes walked out of the jet with his hands up, a protesting Rogers trailing after him. The protests were silenced when Tony roared in anger.

“He’s…”

“ _You’re_ under arrest,” Rhodey snapped, stepping forward. “Get down on your knees and place your hands behind your heads.”

“Rhodes...” Steve began but he was silenced by another angry roar from Tony.

The dragon’s head snaked down until he was at eye level with Rogers and whatever the soldier saw in those eyes silenced him. Barnes had already dropped to his knees and now Rogers slowly followed suit. Only when they were secured with handcuffs provided by an openly annoyed T’Challa did Tony shift back. As he did, the armour swooped down and engulfed him again.

Processing Rogers and Barnes and the rest of the idiots took far too long and by the time Tony and Rhodey fronted the Accords Council again, he was exhausted. Thankfully the Council was more interested in sorting out the problems of Rogers and Barnes and sending people off to investigate the bunker in Russia that Barnes had told them about than anything else so it wasn’t until the very end when anyone brought up his status.

“It is strange to see such an illustrious shift form be concealed,” the Brazilian representative observed.

Tony snorted and Rhodey leaned into him slightly. “I’m not ashamed if that’s the bush you’re delicately beating around.” He sighed and ran a hand down his face. “Like Rogers, I didn’t start out being what I am now. Like him, I used to be a cat.”

“Little black cat,” Rhodey confirmed, a sudden grin breaking out on his face. “He was adorable.”

“I was _not_ adorable,” Tony whined, letting his irritation and annoyance fade in favour of letting his friend tease him.

“ _Adorable_ ,” Rhodey said to the Council in a false confiding tone, much to their open amusement. 

Tony pretended to scowl then smiled wryly. “Afghanistan changed me in some fairly substantial ways. Ways that are reflected in my shift form. Explaining why I went from a cat to a dragon…” He fell silent, unable to find the words to explain how much the idea made him cringe and want to hide in his workshop for a week.

“There is no way of explaining it without telling them what you went through and _that_ … is personal,” Everett Ross said with an understanding nod. “And they probably wouldn’t understand anyway because explaining trauma never sounds as bad to other people as it does to you.”

Tony nodded and waved a hand. “Yeah. That.”

“Will you be registering your shift as part of your skillset for the Accords?” Ross asked.

Tony grimaced and looked over at Rhodey.

“It’s up to you, Tones,” he said quietly. “You don’t have to but it will make it more difficult to use it if it becomes necessary.”

Tony nodded slowly. “Yeah, you’re right.” He looked back at the panel in front of them. “Yes, I will. I can’t really hide it anymore.”

“It is trending,” the Indonesian representative said with a smile. “People are very impressed. I believe one of the more popular questions is what does Tony Stark the dragon hoard?”

Tony was caught by surprise and he laughed and shook his head. “It doesn’t really work that way but I guess I’m going to have to come up with an answer anyway.”

“Going on past experience… coffee,” Rhodey said dryly then he nudged Tony and got to his feet. “Ladies and gentlemen, if we’re done, we’re both exhausted.”

“Of course,” Ross said. “And thank you for bringing things to a close today with minimal damage.”

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, just to answer a few questions I'm sure you have.
> 
> I decided to make T'Challa more reasonable here. He gets shocked out of his anger by Tony's irritation and the fact that he's not kow-towing to him in any way. Also he concedes that Tony makes a very good point and that his anger is better off directed at whoever was controlling the Winter Soldier. (Not that it was the Winter Soldier but you know what I mean.)
> 
> I also decided to make Tony less inclined to give in to Steve all the time. He's having to potentially reveal a 'sort of' secret when he really didn't want to, all because in his eyes, Steve is being an idiot for no apparent reason. And when Rhodey nearly gets hurt, well, as Rhodey says, enough is enough.
> 
> Tony has sort of never officially confirmed or denied being a shifter because there was never any need to. He has never really shifted around anyone he didn't deeply trust so while it's never truly been a secret that he's a shifter, the number of people who knew what he was could be counted on one hand. He doesn't know why the trauma of Afghanistan took him from being a cat to a dragon or how he could shift with the arc reactor in his chest (before it was removed). It's one of those things he doesn't like thinking about because... well, trauma and PTSD. 
> 
> As for the other shifters, Rhodey is a bear, Steve, as mentioned in the fic, went from a scrawny little cat to a winged lion and T'Challa is a black panther. Obviously. :D I haven't decided who among the other Avengers is also a shifter. (Though I kind of like the idea of Peter being a spider shifter, though he doesn't know it just yet. :D)
> 
> The mention of registration in the Accords isn't something to get too worried about. It's kind of like a professional registration where you note down your skill set so if a specialist is needed, they can easily find the right person or people. Yes, there is a risk of it being used for nefarious purposes but that's something Tony's been working on safeguards for. Also, part of him now figures that since the cat... or dragon... is out of the bag, he can make a few deceptively bland public statements that will imply that if anyone tries any funny business with the registration list, they might find that they abruptly have a pissed off dragon up their arse. :D


End file.
